tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-198755372016-11-30T04:27:07.637-08:00Haley's Poker BlogNo bad beats, but still a poker blog... hence the anguish.Haleynoreply@blogger.comBlogger397125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-9630967269863115992014-02-21T17:04:00.001-08:002014-02-21T17:04:24.826-08:00SWC Blogger FreerollJust a little note to say that I'm going to support SealsWithClubs owner Bryan Micon's latest promo effort, a half-Bitcoin freeroll for poker bloggers. I may or may not be able to play, but I'll give SWC a little link love anyway:
Haleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-71403868528082709142013-07-24T21:57:00.000-07:002013-07-25T12:27:44.911-07:00The Plagiarism Shuffle: PokerUpdate's SLAPP C&D at PokerAddict
Author's note: I've moved this from its original posting location at FlushDraw. Neither Ian or Paudie had anything to do with the publication of the piece there; it was mine and mine alone. I've subsequently learned of additional legal threats, so I'm willfully moving this piece here, where it will stay up approximately until hell freezes over. If Jamie and PokerUpdate want to sue me, well Haleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-81041767151858212102013-06-29T13:34:00.002-07:002013-06-29T13:34:31.309-07:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 51: The Fraudulent Mezrich Book, Straight FlushPeople who haven't checked out yet Ben Mezrich's laughably fraudulent "true story" of Absolute Poker, Straight Flush, have probably missed the thorough bashing its getting within the poker world, along with a few other select outlets, such as the review page for the farce over at Amazon. I'm among the many who've reviewed it to to date, and I'll reprint my review here -- and fix a couple of Haleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-47384367927721940042013-06-29T11:43:00.002-07:002013-06-29T11:43:45.777-07:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 50: Updated Index of EntriesAt long last, time for some housekeeping. Things are gearing up again, and it's a good time to get the old stuff in order. Therefore, for easy access, here's a list of all 49-plus "Just Conjecturin'" posts, dealing with the UltimateBet and Absolute Poker insider cheating scandals, that have been published here to date.
Just Conjecturin', Volume 1
Just Conjecturin', Volume 2: Sebok Signing (w/Haleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-6802509229878637872013-01-28T18:12:00.001-08:002013-02-02T09:59:45.890-08:00Just Conjecturin', Vol. 49: The Names Behind Seven More Russ Hamilton UltimateBet Cheating AccountsPicking up where we left off this morning, this post provides the actual account information attached to seven more accounts used in the UltimateBet cheating which were known to be used by Russ Hamilton in his long-running cheating scheme at that site.
This morning, I provided the real names as listed for four new cheating accounts, whose screen names had been listed within a photo dump by Haleynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-57427929610124339642013-01-28T08:40:00.001-08:002013-01-28T08:40:34.475-08:00Just Conjecturin', Vol. 48: Real Names Behind the New Hamilton / Makar UB Cheating AccountsAs we mentioned last tine out, a release of data by Russ Hamilton's former computer guy, Travis Makar, has led to the confirmation of eleven new known accounts used by Hamiilton in the UltimateBet insider cheating scandal.
Those familiar with the scandal may remember than four years back, when the Kahnawake Gaming Commission issued its report publicly blaming Hamilton, they also released a list Haleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-33068716014119983722013-01-27T07:51:00.000-08:002013-01-27T07:52:01.745-08:00Just Conjecturin', Vol. 47: New Russ Hamilton Cheating Accounts RevealedWelcome back, friends and neighbors, to the blog series that never ends. This time out, we'll toss out a few more accounts that have been linked to Russ Hamilton's cheating at UltimateBet.
The information released today is either included in or derived from a handful of photos that Hamilton's long-time computer guy, Travis Makar, has released to Bryan Micon over at Donkdown. You can find Haleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-75632202482744832812012-08-16T08:02:00.000-07:002012-08-28T19:04:26.895-07:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 46: Ultimate BurgerBack today with a new and lighthearted JC installment, a bit of a break from the heavy stuff in many previous posts. This time out it's a look at a tangential tale from the greater UB world, about a Costa Rican burger joint with a heckuva big UB connection, and a story shared just because it's entertaining.
Our protagonist this time is Tommy Percell, UltimateBet's one-time UB Customer RelationsHaleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-13880153808799240132012-08-15T18:54:00.000-07:002012-08-16T07:39:35.910-07:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 45: The Mezrich BookI've noticed today a couple of new news items referring to Ben Mezrich's upcoming effort on Absolute Poker. Mezrich's the one-time member of the fabled MIT blackjack team who wrote about that experience in the book Bringing Down the House (which I own), which later became the movie 21, which I've never watched.
This paragraph from a news story made me chortle:
When asked what he was working onHaleynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-49318752282285037392012-06-18T16:10:00.000-07:002012-06-18T16:23:42.216-07:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 44: The Dirty Birds"You seem to be in some distress," said the kindly judge to the witness. "Is anything the matter?"
"Well, your Honor," said the witness, "I swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but every time I try, some lawyer objects." -- classic lawyer joke
I love me some lawyer jokes, as do most sane people, even as I know that most funny jokes have roots in reality. This Haleynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-73858674307293105102012-06-02T17:37:00.002-07:002012-06-02T17:47:55.942-07:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 43: AP's Chairman Janusz Targeted by Norwegian Bankruptcy Attorneys; $250 Million Corporate Theft AllegedBack to the Just Conjecturin' grind, with a hat tip this time out to an anonymous commenter who alerted me to a unfolding legal action in US District Court, right here in my home state. This involves the former chairman, Ron Janusz, of Absolute Poker's one-time parent/holding company, Norwegian Fjord Madeira Fjord AS.
Madeira Fjord declared bankruptcy last year, and was subsequently hit with Haleynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-54636716526894086722012-05-29T15:51:00.000-07:002012-05-29T15:51:54.575-07:00Major Links OverhaulSpring cleaning time at the ol' Haley's Poker Blog corral, which meant going through the link pile at lower left and getting rid of some of the old and expired blogs. Sadly, there were quite a few entries down there that needed to go away, even as I discovered a couple of blogs that should have been there that somehow weren't.
While a lot of the old standbys of the poker-blog world remain in Haleynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-45138542986638240482012-03-06T16:36:00.000-08:002012-03-11T23:17:09.769-07:00Just Conjecturin', Vol. 42: The Troublesome, Off-Topic RecordBack with a tale from the development of back stories for the upcoming book, and this time it's with a mostly unconnected piece that really won't fit into the book's greater monologue in any meaningful way. It might get a mention, but it's off on such a tangent, and it's such a troubling thing, that it just needs to be published and dealt with, for better or for worse.
The last couple of times Haleynoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-33366187395028881792012-02-14T13:25:00.000-08:002012-02-14T14:27:14.399-08:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 41: The Episode in which I Discover I'd Moved to AfghanistanI've been watching, with some interest, these recent developments regarding "Yukon" Brad Booth, amid the posting of links to a cryptic video by Booth on a prominent poker forum. What's Booth up to? I can't say for sure, though I am aware of tales from multiple channels that Booth had received one payment categorized as a "special refund" not too many months ago, and then a second payment didn'tHaleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-90907602757687873992012-02-08T14:46:00.001-08:002012-02-08T15:29:21.317-08:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 40: Three RecordsFor various reasons, I'm going to release three records culled from the roughly three million UB records accidentally leaked a couple of months ago by whom I believe to be an Israeli spammer. Before getting down to the records themselves, I'd like to reaffirm a few things about the more than 200 data files that were leaked.1) The files were not Cereus Network databases specifically, but the Haleynoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-80956103326100502452012-01-30T15:08:00.000-08:002012-01-30T19:39:44.843-08:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 39: The Leaked 'Russ Hamilton' RecordsGeneral update time here at the JC corral, where work continues apace. As a lot of you faithful readers have figured out, we've pushed the book back a ways from its planned late-2011 release, in large part because important news keeps happening and new sources keep coming forward. There's been a flurry of both just in the last six or eight weeks, from Brent Beckley surrendering to DOJ officialsHaleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-1027589217813724242011-12-03T16:26:00.001-08:002011-12-03T19:29:33.444-08:00Just Conjecturin', Voulme 38: The Sad Case of the UB Data LeaksThose of you paying attention in recent days have probably been aware of the leaking of approximately 3.5 million names' worth of data from the UB customer databases in recent days, for purposes uncertain but probably connected to the sale of the data for spamming use. The data may have been viewable by the public for as long as two weeks, but only in the last 48 hours or so was its public Haleynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-18650477361112407952011-11-30T21:19:00.000-08:002011-12-01T08:37:33.573-08:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 37: The Clown Prince, err, Chairman of the BoardTime to return to the tales of AP and UB with a lighthearted look at one of the more public (and kinda pathetic) persons of the whole AP affair, one Philip Scott Tom. He's Scott Tom's daddy, and he figures in a whole bunch of entertaining stories, some directly connected to the cheating at Absolute Poker, and others not so much.Phil Tom, as he's more commonly known, is quite the star unto Haleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-10884734886392466442011-09-20T21:45:00.000-07:002011-09-20T21:55:31.925-07:00Book UpdateNo time like the present! And the present has been very, very busy. Folks have been wondering about the lack of posts here, but, not to worry -- work on the book proceeds apace. The majority of the book is in the tank, and we're working on the final chapters and the editing. If anything, it's turned into an even more complex and detailed story, and it's important to me and to everyone Haleynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-26985269673239215122011-07-11T16:55:00.000-07:002011-07-11T17:08:37.473-07:00Geez, Just When I Thought the Poker Spam was Slowing DownFROM: MR RAYED BITARIUS.The Manager,Audit/Account SectionFull Tiltican Development Bank.(F.T.D.B.)Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso.Dear Friend of Full Tilt,How are you today? Hope all is well. Please be informed that I have decided to contact you for a fund transfer transaction worth the sum of US$ 9,300,000.00 into your reliable Full Tilt account as the sole NEXT-OF-RAIL to the foreign deceased customerHaleynoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-56963157714463146022011-05-11T05:57:00.001-07:002011-05-31T13:55:59.931-07:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 36: More Norwegian ExposureTo clarify a couple of things for readers, the short piece on the corporate shenanigans of Absolute Poker appearing in the online Sunday version of Dagens Naeringsliv (dn.no) is not the major nuclear bomb against AP ownership that I referenced last time out. To view the longer and more important piece in its original entirety, you need to click on that link within the story linked above and forkHaleynoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-22246562252703266312011-05-09T09:49:00.000-07:002011-05-09T10:05:15.499-07:00Announcing the BookDimat Enterprises, Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of Haley Hintze to author a book covering the UltimateBet and Absolute Poker online cheating scandal. The as-yet-untitled book will be released in the Fall of 2011. Haley Hintze is a veteran writer/editor with decades of published writing credits, and at one time served as Editor-in-Chief of PokerNews.com. She reported on the AbsoluteHaleynoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-12407692787761463052011-05-09T07:36:00.000-07:002011-05-09T09:47:28.699-07:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 35: Norwegian ExposureI've received word that a major new investigative series on the Absolute Poker scandal has dropped today on the Norwegian site dn.no, hone to the online Dagens Naeringsliv Magazine. This piece is written primarily by Goran Skaalmo and includes a ton of stuff never before made public. I have the article in hand and am searching for someone to do a proper Norwegian-to-English translation so I Haleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-66563836737749905892011-05-07T09:56:00.001-07:002011-05-07T10:06:09.745-07:00Pauly's Blow-by-Blow of the Costa Rican RaidsI'm pretty sure that everyone who reads me also reads Dr. Pauly, but just in case, here's his read-it-as-it-happened account of yesterday's raids against the Costa Rican offices of Absolute Poker and PokerStars. The Stars part of the raid was a big mistake by the authorities. A Spanish TV station picked up some video of the raid, including a scene where they knocked down the doors at a private Haleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19875537.post-1861100239560075022011-05-04T17:09:00.000-07:002011-05-05T04:59:36.316-07:00Just Conjecturin', Volume 34: Behind the IDS Closing -- Olman Rimola vs. Paul LeggettThis one is smoking hot, and points at some of the real reasons that the IDS offices in Costa Rica (the customer support centers for Absolute Poker and UB.com) have closed. The following is a Spanish-language memo to all the CR workers, followed what can only be described as a mind-bending exchange between Paul Leggett and Olman Rimola, operational head of the Costa Rica IDS office. I will Haleynoreply@blogger.com21